Thursday, October 2, 2008

Yes, spinach. Wait! Don't leave! The cupcakes don't *taste* like spinach, I promise! Here's the thing-I don't use food coloring, so I had to search the fridge/freezer for something green that would tint my coconut.

[Enter the spinach]

I boiled down some frozen spinach in a little bit of water, and used the green cooking water as food coloring. Here are the finished cupcakes...

Sorry, I don't have an official recipe because I was in extreme Wing-it mode, but here's basically what you have to do. First, bake your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe (here's a good one). Once your cupcakes are at room temperature, make a peanut butter frosting. The frosting should be creamy but not too soft. Go ahead and spread the frosting on the cupcakes.

Now you need to make the green coconut topping. If you use food coloring, go for it. If you don't, boil down about 1/2 cup of spinach in just a little bit of water, just enough to cover the spinach. Boil for 3 to 5 minutes, stick the cooked spinach (with water and all) in a food processor or blender and liquefy on high. Make it as smooth as possible. Then using a fine mesh strainer, squeeze all the green juice out into a small bowl. Gradually add spinach juice to your dry coconut, mix well until most of the coconut turns green. I'm not sure how much juice or coconut I used, so you're gonna have to wing it too.

There you have it. Now you can stick tombstone shaped cookies on top of the cupcakes, and if you want, use some ground chocolate cookies to look like brown soil.

i'm not one for food coloring either. not only is it weird, i can taste it, too - gross! i love the idea of using spinach - it's brilliant, River! these are adorable! you are so darn creative! wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Welcome to Wing It Vegan! I am River and this blog is where I keep track of my favorite recipes. Hopefully you will find some new favorites here as well! Please, don't run away scared if you're not vegan! I promise I won't throw rotten beets or snarky judgments at you. MORE